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User blog:Ace1580/Thoughts on Matthew 4:5-7
In Matthew 4:5-11 we find the remainder of Jesus' temptation in the desert. Before we jump into looking at the last two individual temptations, I want to address a couple of other thoughts. First of all, remember that 1 Corinthians 10:13 states that "...when you are tempted, he God will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." I've often heard people ask what this way out looks like, and while I will concede that it can look like many things, I would argue that Jesus here demonstrates exactly what we're talking about: in each of Satan's temptations, Jesus rebuts him with scripture; he doesn't try to fight Satan on his own, he lets scripture do it for him. Are you wondering why you are constantly succumbing to temptation? My first question to someone wondering something like that would be, "how are you doing in your scripture reading?" The Word gives us power. In this case, its power that protects us against the temptations of the enemy. Without even being able to summon up some exact quotes, immersing yourself daily in scripture keeps God close in mind and naturally helps build a defense against temptation. But more than just passively, it gives you something to focus on in the midst of temptation. Just letting your mind run rampant with whatever it is that's tempting you will doom you for sure, trust me on this one. You need to fill your mind with something good (Rom 16:19; Phil 4:8) and having scripture memorized or readily known will give you something to fill that empty space in your mind before something else does. Finally, it's the word of God were talking about here. The Word of God. Knowing it gives us knowledge of Him and His will, and we need that in order to know right from wrong in the first place. Secondly, notice that in all of his temptations Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6-8. Jesus was not in the desert 40 days doing nothing. He was most certainly praying, meditating, and studying scripture (as a side note here, let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks the Old Testament is old. Jesus used it to combat temptation and it's still useful for us). And what scripture do you think he was studying? I can't tell you the number of times that I've found myself in a dilemma and the solution was found in the scripture I had recently been studying. Now whether that's a Holy Spirit thing, or much of the scripture tends to be useful for a multitude of things, is up to your personal interpretation, but one thing is certainly true: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Tim 3:16). Furthermore, it's worth noting that in all likelihood, Jesus didn't rush through Deuteronomy so he could get to Leviticus. I'm willing to guess that over those 40 days, he spent a good chunk of it in just a handful of chapters. Good deep Bible study requires you to invest serious time in a small chunk of scripture in order to get a lot out of it. Now, on to the actual verses. 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Here, Satan calls into question the trust Jesus puts in his father. We've already addressed physical provision, now we look at physical protection. But that's only the surface of the temptation. By jumping off the temple and surviving, Jesus would be drawing a huge amount of attention to himself. Jesus would be jump starting his ministry with an incredibly ambitious and obviously miraculous but ultimately fruitless parlor trick. Jesus would not have been using his position as the Son of God sacrificially: to heal other and invoke the kingdom of God (more on this later in Matthew 4), but to acquire glory for himself. But there's even a deeper level to this (note that by now we're looking at three different aspects of temptation that Satan is attempting to exploit, all wrapped into one). By jumping off the temple, Jesus would be forcing the hand of God who, rest assured, would have saved him. Essentially, Jesus, who so often would defer to his father’s will (Matt 6:10, 26:42 John 5:19) would be demanding that God respond to his actions, rather than the other way around; he would be putting his will first. Now let’s address Satan’s mode of temptation. He quotes scripture. This is crazy. Satan himself is not an idiot. He knows the same words we do, and he uses them to whatever effect he can. This is one of the reasons why we need to have an intimate knowledge of the scripture, but also an intimate knowledge of the God we find therein. In this case Psalm 91 contains a message of hope and encouragement and protection against attackers for those who make the Lord their refuge. What it doesn't say is that you will be protected if you deliberately do something stupid. Also, the whole chapter has a lot of imagery in it (see the lion and cobra in vs. 13), and when we say "you will not strike your foot against a stone." we're probably not talking a literal stone here. Finally, this passage isn't specifically about Jesus, it isn't prophecy, or a promise for that matter; it’s a song of praise and reading it out of that context can have less than ideal results. However, Jesus responds elegantly. Instead of going into all the reasons why Satan is wrong (modeling for us the fact that you shouldn't get into a debate with the devil, he knows precisely what the flaws in his arguments are and will only take the opportunity you've afforded him by continuing the conversation to bring you down), he quickly and succinctly address the problem. 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test. And that was the end of the argument. This is another reason to know your scripture. You cannot get a full picture of what the Bible has to say on a topic, from one verse. You need to have the totality of the story of God to adequately get an idea of what His opinion is on a topic. Remember, the Bible is a narrative, not a rule book, and you cannot take one verse out of it and assume that that's the guideline for all situations that verse may apply to. We, as studiers of scripture, should not be trying to assemble a list of rights and wrongs from individual verses in the Bible, but to let ourselves be transformed into people more in line with our creator through the totality of his Word. Category:Blog posts